For more information on any of these programs, call 403-297-1700 or visit http://www.cmha.calgary.ab.ca/
Advocacy
The Advocacy Program helps locate information and resources for those who feel overwhelmed by the mental health care system. It also provides referrals for assistance to other agencies. The program ensures that human rights are protected and basic needs are met.
Continuing Connections
Continuing Connections is a partnership program with the Calgary Health Region and strives to enhance quality of life for adults under the age of 65 who have a mental illness and reside in a continuing care facility. The program connects residents with the community and encourages activity to reduce feelings of loneliness and boredom.
Education Programs
The Community Education Program works to break through the stigma related to mental illness. It promotes mental health and wellness through presentations to adult groups and junior and senior high schools on topics such as mental illness, stigma, and stress.
Family Support & Education
Family and friends often have a difficult time coping with a mentally ill relative or friend. The Family Support Program provides caring support and specific information and resources to individuals caring for those affected by mental illness. The program offers a monthly orientation for families new to the mental health system and offers individual, group, and peer support.
Independent Living Support
The Independent Living Support Program (ILS) helps clients live independently in the community by providing emotional support and assistance with living skills like budgeting, cooking, self care, and coping skills to better manage their condition. The program encourages clients to live as independently as their illness will allow.
Lasting Impressions
The Lasting Impressions Program is a partnership between Hull Child and Family Services and the Canadian Mental Health Association - Calgary Region and is intended to strengthen and support families who are affected by a parent's mental illness. The program includes a Family Network In-home Family Mentor as well as youth and teen groups in order to help children better understand and cope with a parent's mental illness.
Leisure / Recreation
The Leisure Recreation Program is available to existing CMHA clients. It encourages active living and helps people overcome the isolation that often accompanies a mental illness. Ultimately, the program provides a compassionate environment in which CMHA clients can build a social support network and just enjoy life.
Peer Options
The Peer Options Program provides group support. Adults with a mental illness can further their health and well-being by reducing isolation and building social skills. Clients learn the skills of friendship building, meet new people, and learn coping and wellness strategies. Peer mentoring is a big part of the Peer Options Program.
Street Outreach & Stabilization
Up to 70 percent of homeless individuals have a mental health concern. The Street Outreach and Stabilization Program (SOS) helps address the needs of these hard-to-reach individuals. SOS assists by reaching out to those on the streets and helping them turn their lives around. Program recipients often transfer to other CMHA services, and in time, move towards independence.
Suicide Services
In Alberta, more than 400 people die by suicide each year, outranking such causes of death as motor vehicle collisions, AIDS, and homicide.
The Suicide Bereavement Support Program offers:
The Suicide Education Program helps prevent suicide through comprehensive awareness building in the community. This is achieved through interactive presentations made available in schools and for adult groups.
Supported Housing
The Supported Housing Program provides accommodation and a safe living environment for those who have difficulty living independently because of a mental illness. Skill development and other services are tailored to the client’s level of need and can include linkage with medical resources, emotional support, teaching skills around personal care, cooking, shopping, budgeting, and more.
Workplace Mental Health - The Copernicus Project
The Copernicus Project is designed to break through the barriers that keep us from dealing effectively with mental health concerns in the workplace. The program brings groups of people together for informed dialogue about the underlying problems contributing to the dramatic rise in disabilities due to anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses, which often are mistaken for performance issues in a workplace.